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Senate Democrats seem to be hardening plans to pass a health care bill through the reconciliation process, meaning only 51 votes in the Senate would be needed rather than the usual 60 necessary to overcome a filibuster.

Is this, as Republicans contend, a case of Democrats defying the will of the American public, since health care reform would be the most sweeping piece of legislation to pass through the reconciliation process? Or are Democrats on solid ground arguing there is precedent for this kind of legislative maneuver. After all, parts of the Reagan economic program were enacted in 1981 through reconciliation, as were the Bush tax cuts 20 years later.

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